They Stooge to Conga
They Stooge to Conga is the 67th short subject starring American slapstick comedy team the Three Stooges. The trio made a total of 190 shorts for Columbia Pictures between 1934 and 1959. Plot The Stooges are repairmen fixing the doorbell in a large house which is the secret headquarters of some Nazi spies, headed by the ruthless Hans (Vernon Dent). They manage to ruin most of the house while working on the wiring and then subdue the spies and sink an enemy submarine by remote control. Violent peak They Stooge to Conga has been consistently ranked as the most violent Stooge film of the team's career. In its brief 15½ minutes, Moe manages to get a climbing spike thrust into his ear, scalp, and eye. Plus, he is lucky enough to be pulled through drywall, with a wooden pillar landing on his neck (this was not intentional, as the pillar was real wood). Curly gets his share of abuse, via electrocution, falling off a telephone pole, severe nose twisting and getting singed via an acetylene torch. Interestingly, though Columbia short subject head/director Jules White was known for the usage of excessive violence in his films, They Stooge To Conga was directed by Del Lord. "We had trouble pulling Moe all the way through the wall," White later recalled. "Since Moe was a full grown man, we weakened the wall and the wood inside and then replastered the wall. Although Moe did suffer an injury while doing the stunt anyway." Notable violent gag *When the trio first enter the house, Moe and Larry try to enter the house simultaneously. They are wedged in the doorway, and get thrusted out when Curly comes up from behind with the point of an anvil as a gouge. *When Moe is pulled through the wall by Larry and Curly, an actual 2x4 made of solid wood crashed onto Moe's neck. *When Moe twists Curly's nose with a tool, he uses a grinding wheel to file it back into shape. *As Moe and Larry assist Curly up a telephone pole, Curly accidentally impales Moe in his scalp, eye and ear with a climbing spike on the bottom of his shoe. *When Curly gets zapped via several telephone pole wires, he loses his grip and falls to the sidewalk, landing on Moe and Larry below. *While Curly is "charged like a battery," Larry places a light bulb in Curly's ear, which lights up. To short him out, Moe places a screwdriver in Curly's opposite ear, bursting the light bulb. *As Curly is sliding on electrical wires, he gets a shock, which pushes him through an open window. *As the Nazi spies' cook (Dudley Dickerson) is talking on the phone, the phone explodes in his face due to Curly's manipulating the electrical wires. The startled cook then backs away from the phone, right into an open waffle iron. The iron closes on the cook's back, leading the cook to think he is being attacked by someone. *When Moe takes a hammer, he hits Larry from behind, then thrusts it into Curly's mouth. Curly, in turn, bonks Moe with his own hammer 20 times in rapid succession. Trivia *The doorbell repair segment would be reworked during the Shemp era in ''Listen, Judge''. *The climbing spike later using again in SpongeBob Squarepants' episode, SpongeBob Meets the Strangler *The title They Stooge to Conga is parody of the eighteenth-century play She Stoops to Conquer. Routines Tug-of-war. Curly pulls a wire on one side of a wall, but Moe on the kitchen pulls the other end of the wire. Curly later order Larry to help him and pull a wire together while Moe is still pulling the other end of the wire. Curly and Larry once again yank the other end of the wire, and it pulls Moe back up from the floor, on to the table and crashing into the wall.